Status of new 6400, 6600 Flex Radios?

What is current status of the new Flex 6400M, 6600M radios? I think Gerald indicated they would begin shipping the first part of November. I dont recall a current update to the last information we all received.

Absolutely NO DOUBT about that. I really want it for tomorrow's ARRL SSB Sweep contest and other contests between now and Bouvet. It's why I bought the 6600M in the first place. Surely don't need one for 80 meter rag chews.

If what Tim said about they did not start selling them until May 19th, then I must be in the top 5 for my 6400. At the bottom of my form, Matt put Cash, 4:55pm, 5/19. And when he put my order on top of the pile, it was less than a 1/2 inch. Hope it is here before Xmas.

All our radios pass FCC certifications before they can be sold and shipped. We plan to ship the new radios very soon, so yes, they have passed FCC certifications. Certifications are done early in the product engineering process to ensure that boards do not have to be modified to pass.

I placed my order (6600M) around the 3rd week of June and was also told that mine will be included in the first production run. While cautiously optimistic,I also realize Icom customers have been waiting 15 months and as of tonight US customers still don't have them. By comparison the longest any of us have been waiting is 6 months. Sure it'd be nice to have it by Christmas, (specifically meaning Christmas 2017) but if it doesn't make it until Valentine's Day, I'm sure I'll survive. I've seen enough of the 7610 to know that there's something a lot better coming from Flex, so I'm not going to get tired of waiting, In fact after the recent price announcement (3995.95) there's been a number of pre-order cancellations within that camp. MTC & Gigaparts are offering $100 discounts plus offering $1000 trade-in credits for ultra-clean and complete (with original accys & factory carton) 7300s as a way of easing the shock of the steep price and trying to salvage some orders they otherwise risk losing.

Gary, The IC-7610 will not replace the IC-7851 anytime soon Tracking filters, true diversityNoise Reduction better than any BHI unit, Will not overload in CQWW with 70+/9 signals side by side, etc Only issue it price like a Ferrari Race Car, you get what you pay for.

For 99.5% of radio customers the $13,000 non SDR, no panadaptor product is a dinosaur. Flex 6600M for 1/3 the price. Its what I bought. HIHI My Elecraft K3 for half the price is a better radio, way better customer service and I expect it to sit idle once the 6600M arrives.

None of us want a radio before it can be the best Flex can build. I certainly don't want to have to send it back to correct a problem with hardware. We're just itching to put them on the air. For me its my first Flex (thank you for the knobs and stand alone from Mr. Gates). I'm trying to protect the $$ set aside. XYL's are notorious for eating into ones stash of greenbacks and remember Christmas is not far away. Saved money has a way of disappearing.

I believe what he means is it doesn’t matter when it comes. It simply would be nice to have a firm date of when to expect it without using vague or ambiguous terms. The mfr likely knows what the cycle time is for assembly, QA & shipping. What’s unknown might be the lead time for the components, some of which are in high demand & short supply, such as 10k resistors. If you can’t get the penny parts, you certainly wouldn’t want to tie up your working capital in the $10 parts that you can get. However, in a recent interview Gerald implied that they had everything they needed for production through the end of 2018. If only for budgetary reasons, it’d be awfully nice to have a firmer timeline of when I need to liquidate an investment to come up with the balance owed. We don’t all live on plastic.

I think more frequent updates by the FLEX staff would lessen the questions concerning 6400-6600 delivery. Communication to customers is key to any company's success. I am not talking about explicit delivery dates but just the status of development at the present time. Without informed communication, rumors run rampant.

I know this, in fact I called last week concerning my order; just seems like more frequent updates via announcements would alleviate a lot of these type telephone calls which consume the Flex staff's time. Example: I called Sales, had to leave message, Flex called me back and had to leave a message for me, I again had to call Flex to talk with someone.. This is so wasteful of the support Staff's time to get a answer that could have been answered one time for many of us with a brief announcement.

Tim, I am sure they are aware of everything you mention, but Flex has been getting away from giving any kind of dates, only in the ball park dates. This is done for very good reasons I may add. Sit tight, as the time gets closer we will hear more.There will always be rumors, and little can be done to stop them.

I think I am perhaps #1 on the list for the 6400M (first to order it the night it was announced at the Flex dinner prior to Hamvention). I did not get an email as you mention above. Concerning. Fred K0RAL - Dayton Ohio

It wasn't all bad news though, which is why they must have waited until the issues got resolved to send out the email.

I was worried that they might do everything for the M models and start shipping them before getting started on the non-M models, but the email (and a call to Mike) confirmed that at least the boards for the first run are done for both M and non-M.

I read Gerald's message to say they hoped the first run of M models would ship in December. The original plan was to ship the M models one month before the non M models, so I assume the 6400 would ship in January. Anyone disagree with this?

The final parts for the FLEX-6400 and FLEX-6600 front panels are in transit to the factory so we expect to ship the first production run of all four models next month. The may be slightly behind the "M" models but not by much. We are hoping that there will not be much gap in shipping all models after the first production run, assuming the vendors all ship on time to our factory.

Excellent news, happy to see everything coming together for you now Gerald.
Be proud. You are certainly innovator #1 of the decade in my book.
Your competitors can't touch this.
It's also very interesting to watch this all unfold.

Dear Valued Customer,
First, we sincerely appreciate your pre-order and your trust in FlexRadio. You have ordered one of the most powerful transceivers ever produced for the Amateur Radio market and we are confident you will love it.

As a reminder, here are a few of the things to look forward to with your new radio:

Industry-leading performance for the price

SmartLink for plug and play remote on iPhone, iPad, Maestro or laptop

Regular software updates with new features and performance improvements

Large 8" high resolution (1920 x 1200) multi-touch display (M-models)

Two full sets of VFO controls (M-models)

And many more...

We would like to apologize for the delay from our original September shipment estimate. Unfortunately, two factors out of our control delayed production startup. First, our manufacturing partner cut over to a new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system on September 1. This resulted in a ~3-week delay that we were not aware of when we made our original estimate. Secondly, our bare printed circuit board supplier was late on three PCBs by three weeks, which were additive to the ERP transition delay. Fortunately, those issues are behind us and the factory is in full swing.

Here is the latest status of production:

The factory completed the last printed circuit board assembly for the first production run on November 18th.

We also received first article (FA) final production assemblies on November 18th for validation as shown in the photo below. We were successful in confirming quality and performance of the FA units over the weekend.

The factory is in the process now of building the major chassis subassemblies in preparation for final system test and calibration.

This week is Thanksgiving week in the US, which has the factory short on staff and closed on Thursday and Friday. Full production will resume on Monday after the holiday.

Barring any unforeseen problems, our manufacturing partner has committed best efforts to complete the first production run during the month of December. Both they and we are highly motivated to do so.

Shipments into the US market will begin first.

We expect to begin CE testing during the first or second week of December. Shipments to the EU will begin as soon that testing is successfully completed.

We know that you would like to get ready to use your new radio so we are providing a link below to the Quick Start Guide and the FLEX-6400M/FLEX-6600M User Guide. The hardware section of these manuals is applicable to the FLEX-6400 and FLEX-6600 as well. Review the SmartSDR for Windows User Guide for software operation of the FLEX-6400 and FLEX-6600 models. We hope that you will take the time to review these manuals in preparation for receipt of your radio.

We know you are eager to learn when you will receive your radio but please try to refrain from contacting us since there will be no additional information beyond that provided here. Prior to shipment of your radio, we will contact you by email to request final payment, verify your shipping information, and see if there are any changes you would like to make to your order.